Tupac Shakur murder trial gets underway 30 years after hip hop icon's death
Tupac Shakur was shot and killed on September 13, 1996, and the case remains unsolved.
The Tupac Shakur murder trial has finally started three decades after the rapper's death.
The hip-hop icon, also known by his stage name 2Pac, was shot and killed in September 1996 when he was just 25, and on Monday (17.08.26) a trial got underway in Las Vegas, Nevada with Duane 'Keffe D' Davis accused of orchestrating his death.
Both the prosecution and Davis' defence gave opening statements earlier in the day.
According to CBS News, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis organised the killing in “an act of revenge" after Shaku attacked his nephew Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson.
Davis was arrested and charged with murder back in 2023, making him the only person ever arrested in connection with the incident.
In 2019, he wrote in his memoir Compton Street Legend that he provided the gun used in the killing.
Palal added: "Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger.
"But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew. Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself."
However, Davis' defense attorney Michael Sanft used his opening statement to argue that his client's memoir is fiction.
The New York Times reported that the lawyer branded the book "bulls***", adding: "[Davis] as never charged for any of what he said during that time period, and it’s because they knew he was full of crap.”
Witnesses who took to the stand during the first day of the trial included Vegas police officer Garry Dale, who responded on the night of the shooting, and onlooker Ingrid Stokes.
Meanwhile, former LAPD officer Fred Miller, who investigated the murder of Notorious B.I.G., and ex-homicide detective Brent Becker also appeared in court as witnesses.
Keefe has given multiple interviews along with his memoir, confessing to his role in the shooting of Tupac and claims he rode in the car and handed nephew Orlando Anderson the murder weapon before he fired the fatal shots that killed the rapper.
Keefe claimed in his memoir Tupac appeared to be reaching for a weapon before the execution, but his side fired first, essentially killing the rapper.
The case has remained unsolved ever since.
The acclaimed rap star - who used the stage name 2Pac - sold more than 75 million records worldwide and at the time of his death had been embroiled in an infamous rivalry with fellow rapper Biggie Smalls, who himself was shot and killed six months later in March 1997.
